Online IDS public lecture series fall 2020

The IDS public lecture series, designed as an introduction to some of the most pressing questions driving contemporary thought and practice, consists of lectures by artists, theorists, scientists, activists, writers, and other practitioners involved in the arts from positions that embody an interdisciplinary approach or that imply new uses for disciplinary traditions. Each lecture is part of The Cooper Union’s Intra-Disciplinary Seminar (IDS). The seminar and series are organized by Leslie Hewitt and Omar Berrada.

This year’s IDS lectures are organized along three general directions: “On Land,” where we recognize the continued centrality of the physical environment in the major struggles of our time; “On Embodiment,” where we focus on body politics as a way to engage with contemporary bordering practices and counter-hegemonic circulations; and “On Scale,” where we think about systemic change, asking how, where, for whom and at what pace it can be brought about.

The online IDS lectures will take place as Zoom webinars on Tuesdays at 7pm EST, unless otherwise specified. They are free and open to the public upon registration. The weekly registration links will be posted on our website and social media pages, and included in our weekly email newsletter.
 

Fall 2020 IDS public lectures

September 15 
Nadir Bouhmouch, Against Monoculture: Art and Food from Below

September 22  
Nicholas Galanin, Shadow on the Land

September 29  
Yarimar Bonilla, The Coloniality of Disaster

October 6      
Cameron Rowland, Encumbrance

October 17 (Saturday, 12pm EST)    
Christine Sun Kim, Title Zero 

October 31 (Saturday, 2pm EST)  
Tania El Khoury, The Audience Commemorating the Dead

November 3      
Meg Onli, Colored People Time

November 10    
Zahra Ali, Up-rising: Iraq and the Feminist Imagination

November 17    
Axelle Karera, New Research

December 1      
Jordy Rosenberg, Metabolics of the Book

December 8      
Mariame Kaba, ‘Abolition is About Making Things’: Creativity in Organizing

December 15    
NIC Kay, Far from Well
 

The Cooper Union School of Art
Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture, and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences. The School of Art is firmly committed to a generalist curriculum that encompasses all the fundamental disciplines and resources of the visual arts. Each student is educated not only in specific disciplines, but also in the complex interrelationships of all the visual vocabularies. This philosophic premise relates to all the objectives of the School of Art and is the foundation upon which all teaching, creative work, service and research are based. The Studio curriculum along with the Art History and General Studies components of the BFA program all have as their goal the acquisition of communication skills, the development of critical perspective, and the mastery of the materials and intellectual premises of the study of societies and people. Throughout eight semesters, students become socially aware, historically grounded, creative practitioners. They are taught to be critical analysts of the world of contemporary visual communications, art, and the culture at large.

General support and funding
The IDS public lecture series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding from the Robert Lehman Foundation. The IDS public lecture series is also made possible by generous support from the Open Society Foundations.